The Earth Room
THE EARTH ROOM is a collection of fabulist stories that explore the natural world, superstition, motherhood, and loss. In one story, a woman transforms her boyfriend into a salamander. In another, a group of women are drawn together by a support group for the partners of vampires and werewolves. Inhabiting these stories are secret tunnels, magical doorways, modern witches, a mother who gives birth to a ghost, a town full of doubles, a sanctuary for potbelly pigs, and a daughter who never grows up. The stories transport us from the forests of Appalachia to the Sonoran Desert to the glaciers of Iceland, while always staying grounded in the inner lives of their characters.
The Church of Divine Electricity
Delightfully blending literary fiction with speculative genres, the stories in The Church of Divine Electricity somehow manage to feel as though they could take place today. In Emily Mitchell's created worlds, as in our own, technology bewitches, especially with its ability to heighten both connections and isolation. Whether being held by a giant and comforting machine, allowing micro-drones to record one's every moment for a year to win prize money, or choosing self-mutilation in exchange for a bionic hand, these characters navigate technological and social change. The familiar can turn unrecognizable and disorienting--sometimes in a flash, sometimes gradually. Lyrical, haunting, and often funny, these stories ask us to consider what--and who--gets left out of a seemingly utopian future of technological advancements. Finely observed, thoughtful, and vivid, Mitchell's stories get under your skin. It's not that the best-laid plans could lead us astray--it's that they may already have.
A Shadow of Love (The Discreet Edition)
Some loves save you. Some loves destroy you. Some loves do both.From fleeting encounters under city lights to passions born in blood and rain, this collection explores what it means to love in the shadows-when tenderness collides with danger, when devotion blurs into obsession, when survival demands surrender and defiance.A boy made of starlight who disappears like smoke.A gangster whose devotion can only be written in secret poems.A scarred stranger who becomes both captor and salvation.An assassin who learns the language of flowers in a gardener's hands.A childhood friend who burns brighter than the fire that hunts him.A master who lingers like mist long after his last kiss.Dark, haunting, and achingly intimate, these six love stories are not promises, but possibilities. These are tales where the heart is both weapon and wound...where even in the darkest corners, love still dares to bloom.This is the discreet edition of the short story collection 'A Shadow of Love.' Warnings for mature content. Please read content notes. Recommended for readers 18 years old and above.
Playing the Symphony of the Impossible Peace
Playing the Symphony of the Impossible Peace is a searing collection of very short stories that dissects the anatomy of modern global existence. Author Ahmed Mostafa Ahmed wields the pen like a surgical knife, exposing the hypocrisy of political systems, the crippling weight of bureaucracy, and the absurdities of a world addicted to silence in the face of injustice. From a father's terrifying realization about a meager raise to a lawyer proposing a cinematic solution to corruption, each story is a powerful, fleeting echo of the impossible peace we strive to achieve. Prepare for reality, condensed-where a vote on democracy can lead to abandonment, and the most profound truths are found in the most concise moments.
Thin Places
A finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award, Thin Places is a gothic and atmospheric collection from the national bestselling author of The Bog Wife. This beautiful reissue includes four additional stories. A not-quite-human proprietor menaces guests at a hotel on the edge of a swamp. A composer visits a remote Slavic village where villagers perform soundless songs that accompany violent sacrifices. Four reclusive women conjour children out of unconventional materials in an unnerving mansion. The arrival of a lighthouse-keeper's daughter portends disaster for an insular island community with bizarre traditions. With transcendent prose that celebrates her hypnotic and humane vision of the strange and supernatural, Kay Chronister weaves a dark tapestry of love, grief, death, and the exquisite pain and joy of life on the periphery of the familiar. The fifteen stories collected here, chronicle the lives of powerful women and children, wicked witches and demons, cursed artists and overlooked communities. Thin Places is a perfect companion to Chronister's national bestselling novel The Bog Wife and ideally suited for readers of Shirley Jackson and Carmen Maria Machado.
Always One Mistake
A cow falls through the roof of a bar, landing on a criminal struggling with his bad choices. A recovering gambler wins and wrecks a car on the same day. A mysterious woman transforms toys and oddities into higher powers for newcomers at a twelve-step program. In a fit of road rage, an angry driver mistakenly flips off a cop. A broken man finds a curious companion while attending the reunion show of the favorite heavy-metal band from his youth. These are the strange stories of the all-too-real world of Always One Mistake. Here, author Ace Boggess shows humanity at its bleakest, but also its most hopeful. These stories are explorations of what it means to live in modern times-- times filled with addiction, crime, loss, and overcoming.
Winter Delights
The Holidays bring stress, comfort, mystery, and, in the end, ginger-flavored joy.Boxing Day at Wentworth Manor brings joy and celebration. But a cruel crime threatens to ruin the party.A Christmas parade, a mug full of comfort, and a special new friend help a mother learn how to better show her love.Walt knows y'all think Santa Claus ain't real. One snowy Christmas Eve, Walt learns better.The Christmas season hits hard for some people. Yet it sometimes also brings hope for recovery and renewal.Stuart's Stop 'N Shop, always open, even for Christmas. Then the holiday spirit surprises Stuart, Bobby, and Pete.When the Santa Train fails to make the trip, one special person makes all the difference for a grateful town.When the magic of Old Christmas makes an appearance, the magic of music turns sadness to joy.If there's one thing entrepreneur Tina Braddock knows, it's that a good salesperson rolls with the unexpected. Even when the unexpected only stands four inches tall.Carrie faces Christmas in a new city, far from those who refuse to see her. Then she finds a true family to join for the celebration.Ellie faces unwelcome changes in her life, threatening her Christmas spirit. Only Deke, Miss Pebbles, and a pan of Grammy's gingerbread promise a joyful new start.
Winter Delights
The Holidays bring stress, comfort, mystery, and, in the end, ginger-flavored joy.Boxing Day at Wentworth Manor brings joy and celebration. But a cruel crime threatens to ruin the party.A Christmas parade, a mug full of comfort, and a special new friend help a mother learn how to better show her love.Walt knows y'all think Santa Claus ain't real. One snowy Christmas Eve, Walt learns better.The Christmas season hits hard for some people. Yet it sometimes also brings hope for recovery and renewal.Stuart's Stop 'N Shop, always open, even for Christmas. Then the holiday spirit surprises Stuart, Bobby, and Pete.When the Santa Train fails to make the trip, one special person makes all the difference for a grateful town.When the magic of Old Christmas makes an appearance, the magic of music turns sadness to joy.If there's one thing entrepreneur Tina Braddock knows, it's that a good salesperson rolls with the unexpected. Even when the unexpected only stands four inches tall.Carrie faces Christmas in a new city, far from those who refuse to see her. Then she finds a true family to join for the celebration.Ellie faces unwelcome changes in her life, threatening her Christmas spirit. Only Deke, Miss Pebbles, and a pan of Grammy's gingerbread promise a joyful new start.
Winter Delights
The Holidays bring stress, comfort, mystery, and, in the end, ginger-flavored joy.Boxing Day at Wentworth Manor brings joy and celebration. But a cruel crime threatens to ruin the party.A Christmas parade, a mug full of comfort, and a special new friend help a mother learn how to better show her love.Walt knows y'all think Santa Claus ain't real. One snowy Christmas Eve, Walt learns better.The Christmas season hits hard for some people. Yet it sometimes also brings hope for recovery and renewal.Stuart's Stop 'N Shop, always open, even for Christmas. Then the holiday spirit surprises Stuart, Bobby, and Pete.When the Santa Train fails to make the trip, one special person makes all the difference for a grateful town.When the magic of Old Christmas makes an appearance, the magic of music turns sadness to joy.If there's one thing entrepreneur Tina Braddock knows, it's that a good salesperson rolls with the unexpected. Even when the unexpected only stands four inches tall.Carrie faces Christmas in a new city, far from those who refuse to see her. Then she finds a true family to join for the celebration.Ellie faces unwelcome changes in her life, threatening her Christmas spirit. Only Deke, Miss Pebbles, and a pan of Grammy's gingerbread promise a joyful new start.
After Midnight
From Daphne du Maurier, "a writer of fearless originality" (The Guardian), comes a collection of her thirteen most mesmerizing tales--including iconic stories such as "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now"--with an introduction by Stephen King. Daphne du Maurier is best known for Rebecca, "one of the most influential novels of the 20th century" (Sarah Waters) and basis for Alfred Hitchcock's iconic film adaptation. More than thirty-five years after her death, du Maurier is celebrated for her gothic genius and stunning psychological insight by authors such as Ottessa Moshfegh, Maggie O'Farrell, Lucy Foley, Gillian Flynn, Jennifer Egan, and countless others, including Stephen King and Joe Hill. After Midnight brings together some of du Maurier's darkest, most haunting stories, ranging from sophisticated literary thriller to twisted love story. Alongside classics such as "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now,"--both of which inspired unforgettable films--are gems such as "Monte Verit?," a masterpiece about obsession, mysticism, and tragic love, and "The Alibi," a chilling tale of an ordinary man's descent into lies, manipulation, and sinister fantasies that edge dangerously close to reality. In "The Blue Lenses," a woman recovering from eye surgery finds she now perceives those around her as having animal heads corresponding to their true natures. "Not After Midnight" follows a schoolteacher on holiday in Crete who finds a foreboding message from the chalet's previous occupant who drowned while swimming at night. In "The Breakthrough," a scientist conducts experiments to harness the power of death, blurring the line between genius and madness. Each story in this collection exemplifies du Maurier's exquisite writing and singular insight into human frailty, jealousy, and the macabre. She "makes worlds in which people and even houses are mysterious and mutable; haunted rooms in which disembodied spirits dance at absolute liberty" (Olivia Laing, author of Crudo). Daphne du Maurier is mistress of the sleight of hand and slow-burning menace, often imitated and never, ever surpassed. Stories include: -"The Blue Lenses" -"Don't Look Now" -"The Alibi" -"The Apple Tree" -"The Birds" -"Monte Verita" -"The Pool" -"The Doll" -"Ganymede" -"Leading Lady" -"Not After Midnight" -"Split Second" -"The Breakthrough"
